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TOOMBS COUNTY, Ga. () – Felony charges have been filed against the driver in a deadly crash that killed two teenagers earlier this month in Toombs County.
Eighteen-year-old Lauren Wilcher is accused of getting behind the wheel after a night of drinking. She’s facing charges, including two felony counts of vehicular homicide and one felony count of serious injury by vehicle.
“We would certainly hope that something like this would certainly impact others and make them think before they get under the wheel to drive,” said Toombs County Sheriff Alvie Kight Jr.
Kight says it’s Wilcher’s other charges — a DUI and excessive speeding — that escalated the homicide charges. Wilcher refused field sobriety tests; reports say she was driving over the legal limit.
“Driving a car at a high rate of speed… it’s like shooting a gun in the air it could hit anybody,” the sheriff said.
According to the Georgia State Patrol, after midnight on March 9, Wilcher was driving west out of Vidalia in the rain with three other teenagers.
The car ran off the road killing two passengers, Kyle Jackson, 19, and Brooke Williamson, 18.
“Everybody loved Kyle. Everybody loved Brooke,” K’leb Crapps, a friend of theirs, told News 3.
Nineteen-year-old Caleb Howell survived the crash.
“You hate to see somebody so young that’s got a future ahead of them have to be faced with this,” Kight said.
Ahead of the prom season, the sheriff is asking parents to help keep teens safe.
“Parents need to know what their children are doing,” Wilcher said.
“Some kids are gonna drink and some are gonna drive and that’s a bad thing,” he added. “So parents, please be aware of this and try to stop it before it starts.”
Kight says they haven’t talked about setting up DUI checkpoints on prom nights yet, but patrol cars will be visible, serving as a warning not to drink and drive.
Wilcher turned herself in to the Toombs County Jail on Friday. She has since bonded out.
